A look at the latest video games, computer games and gaming trends by The Anniston Star

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Emperor Palpatine

Emperor Palpatine is first mentioned in the second Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. There, he is mentioned as the ruthless, evil Emperor of the tyrannical Galactic Empire. In the movie, he is mentioned often by the Sith lord Darth Vader. The Emperor then makes an appear-ance in a hologram where he is getting the status of the Sith lord’s progress in crushing the Rebel Alliance. He appears as an old, twisted figure dressed in black robes. He then makes another appearance in the sixth film Return of the Jedi. There, Darth Vader announces the arrival of the Emperor to the new Death Star which is still under construction. When his ship lands in the docking bay, he appears as an old man dressed entirely in black robes that walks with a cane. We then get to see his face clearly. His face is disfigured and worn and he appears to be older than expected. And as the movie progresses, we see more of the evil villain, most especially as he tries to lure the young Jedi, Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the force. We come to see that he is a manipulative, evil figure that only requires more and more power, thus making him seem all the more evil. Palpatine makes his first appearance in the more recent trilogy of epi-sodes I, II, and III. He is first seen in Episode I as a kindly senator for his home planet of Naboo. There he first meets young Anakin Skywalker and tells him that he will take much interest in him as he grows older. Also in Episode I, he makes his first move to take over the democratic Galactic Republic by insisting that the Queen Amidala elect Senator Palpatine as the new chan-cellor. Eventually, the old chancellor is removed from office and Palpatine takes his place. In Episode II, we begin to see the first major moves of Palpatine as he tries to take over the Senate and the Republic itself. That is also when we first hear from the mysterious Darth Sidious, a powerful, but austere Sith Lord. In the movie, Chancellor Palpatine begins to gain more and more power over the Galactic Senate. As the saga progresses, Chancellor Palpatine begins to take complete control over the Galactic Senate and even over the Jedi order. In Episode III, Pal-patine reveals his true nature as Darth Sidious, and thus being overthrows the Jedi order. Thus being, Chancellor Palpatine then becomes Emperor Palpatine, emperor over the newly formed Galactic Empire. He then succeeds in turning the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker over to the dark side, then becoming Darth Vader, the lord of the Sith.